Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Zaria
I was never meant to exist.
At least, that was what I had been told.
My entire life had been surrounded by gossip, whispers, and lies. Some were spoken behind my back, while others were delivered straight to my face. I had grown accustomed to the cruel words, the pitying glances, and the way people seemed to look at me as though I were something they wished had never been born.
But there was one thing I believed to be true.
I was a mistake.
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you were born into a different species? If you could be something other than what fate had cruelly decided for you?
I had.
Every single day since I was nine years old, I had dreamed of being someone else. Sometimes, I imagined myself as a mermaid, swimming through the depths of the ocean where no one could reach me. Other times, I dreamed of being a bird, soaring high above the mountains, free to go wherever the wind carried me.
Anything would be better than being a wolf.
Better than being forced to submit to a pack. Better than living under the brutal commands of an Alpha who believed his authority was absolute.
Unfortunately, I had never been afforded that luxury.
My father was the Alpha.
And being his daughter was a punishment I had never asked for.
The irony was that my parents had never been ordinary wolves. They were ambitious, ruthless, and hungry for power. My father wanted to be more than an Alpha. He wanted to be untouchable. Feared by every supernatural creature that dared challenge his authority.
Including the vampires.
Especially the vampires.
They had been getting closer to our territory for years. Their presence was becoming harder to ignore, and the elders had begun whispering about a possible war.
My father was terrified of losing his power.
But an Alpha like him would never admit to fear.
Instead, he sought ways to become stronger.
And my mother, desperate to remain the woman he loved, was willing to do whatever it took to please him.
Even if it meant sacrificing her own daughter.
I didn’t know the entire story. Not then. Not even now.
What I knew came from fragments of conversations, half-spoken confessions, and memories that had haunted me since childhood.
My mother had a friend.
A woman who was not a wolf.
A dark witch.
I remembered hearing my father’s voice one night, sharp and impatient, as he spoke to my mother.
“The vampires are getting closer. We cannot afford to be weak.”
My mother’s voice had been softer.
“What do you want me to do?”
“You said your friend could help.”
A pause.
Then my mother whispered, “She can. But her magic comes at a price.”
My father’s response had been immediate.
“Then pay it.”
I was too young to understand what those words meant.
Too young to understand why my mother cried that night.
Too young to know that the price of my father’s ambition would eventually be paid with my own life.
Or what remained of it.
I was five years old when the darkness came.
I still remembered the cold.
The smell of herbs and burning candles.
The sound of my mother’s trembling breath.
And a voice that did not belong to anyone I knew.
“A sacrifice must be made.”
I remembered my mother crying.
I remembered reaching for her hand.
And I remembered her fingers slipping away from mine.
The rest was a blur.
A sharp pain behind my eyes.
A scream that sounded like it belonged to someone else.
Then nothing.
When I woke up, the world had disappeared.
The healers called it unexplained blindness.
The pack called it a punishment.
My father called it a disgrace.
And my mother...
My mother never spoke of that night again.
I had spent years wondering why.
Why had the darkness chosen me?
Why had my parents allowed it to happen?
And why did my father seem more afraid of my blindness than he was angry about it?
Sometimes, I wondered if there was something else buried beneath the curse.
Something even my parents did not understand.
But those were questions I had learned not to ask.
Because in the Blackthorn Pack, questions were dangerous.
And the truth was even more dangerous.
“ZARIA! GET OUT HERE! NOW!”
My father’s thunderous voice shattered the silence of my bedroom.
I flinched.
There it was again.
That familiar anger. That unmistakable tone that sent a chill crawling down my spine.
I closed my eyes out of habit.
Not that it made any difference.
I had been living in darkness for ten years. Closing my eyes only reminded me of how little had changed since the night the curse took everything from me.
I slowly reached for the wooden cane resting beside my bed.
My fingers wrapped around its smooth handle.
“Zaria!” he roared again. “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!”
I swallowed hard.
What did I do this time?
I already knew the answer would be whatever he decided it was.
My father had a talent for turning the smallest inconvenience into a reason to unleash his temper.
And somehow, I always ended up being the target.
I forced myself to stand.
There was no point in hiding. He would only become angrier, and I had no desire to give him another reason to blame me.
I opened my bedroom door and stepped into the hallway, tapping my cane against the floor to orient myself.
My father’s footsteps were unmistakable.
Heavy.
Impatient.
Angry.
I could feel his Alpha aura pressing against me like an invisible weight, demanding submission.
I lowered my head instinctively.
“What did I do now, Father?” I asked quietly.
His footsteps stopped.
“Is that how you speak to your Alpha?”
I swallowed.
“No, Father.”
“Then look at me when I’m talking to you!”
A bitter laugh nearly escaped my lips.
Look at him?
If only I could.
Instead, I turned my face toward the sound of his voice.
“I am listening.”
His breathing grew heavier.
“You will not mock me, Zaria.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Silence!”
His command slammed into me, and my wolf whimpered deep inside my chest.
I hated that sound.
I hated how easily he could make me feel small. I hated how my own wolf seemed to recognize his authority even when every part of me wanted to fight back.
But most of all, I hated that I was afraid of him.
“What is it this time?” I whispered.
“You embarrassed this family again.”
My stomach tightened.
“How?”
“Your presence is enough!”
The words struck harder than I wanted to admit.
My presence.
Even after ten years of blindness, even after every humiliation I had endured, my father still made it clear that simply existing was a crime.
“Father,” I whispered, “I didn’t ask to be born this way.”
A deadly silence followed.
Then he stepped closer.
“Do you think I don’t know that?”
His words came out differently this time. The sharpness in his voice began to fade, replaced by a thick, uneven slur.
I tilted my head slightly, listening.
The smell of alcohol reached my nose, strong enough to make me wrinkle it.
He was drunk.
Of course he was.
My father had a habit of drowning himself in liquor whenever things didn’t go his way. And tonight, apparently, I was the reason for his misery.
“Y-you think I wanted this?” he muttered. “You think I wanted a daughter like you?”
My fingers tightened around my cane.
I had heard those words before, but they never seemed to hurt any less.
“Father, I—”
“Don’t you dare interrupt me!” he barked, though his words stumbled over one another. “I am the Alpha! You will respect me!”
Heavy footsteps approached from the opposite end of the hallway.
“Enough!”
My mother’s voice cut through the tension.
I turned toward her, recognizing the familiar sound of her heels against the marble floor.
“Your father has had too much to drink,” she said firmly.
I heard her take his arm.
“Come on, darling. Let’s get you to bed.”
“Leave me alone!” he grumbled, pulling away. “That girl... she is always—”
“That’s enough,” my mother interrupted.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then my mother turned toward me.
“Zaria, go back to your room.”
I stood still.
“Mother—”
“Not tonight.”
Her voice was quiet, but there was something in it that made me stop.
I couldn’t tell if it was exhaustion, irritation, or something else entirely.
“Please,” she added. “Just go to your room.”
I lowered my head.
“Yes, Mother.”
I turned, tapping my cane against the floor as I made my way back down the hallway.
Behind me, I heard my father mumble something incoherent.
My mother shushed him.
And then, just before I reached my bedroom door, I heard her whisper.
“Everything we have done has been for this family.”
I froze.
The words lingered in the hallway.
For this family.
I wondered if she believed them.
I wondered if she believed that sacrificing her own daughter had been worth it.
But I didn’t ask.
I had learned long ago that some questions were better left unanswered.
At twenty years old, I was still the blind, unwanted daughter of the Alpha.
My younger brother, born five years after me, was the golden child. The male heir. The future Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack.
He was everything my father had ever wanted.
And I was everything he wished he could forget.
I closed my bedroom door quietly.
For a moment, I stood in the darkness, my hand resting against the wood.
Then I whispered to the only person who had never abandoned me.
My wolf.
“One day, we’ll leave this place.”
She didn’t answer.
But deep inside my chest, I felt her stir.
